Stepping down from a program that just won a state championship may have been the easiest decision Scott Wilcher ever made.

As head coach of the baseball team in 2013, Wilcher led Mangham to the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Class 1A state title and was named the All-NELA Small Schools Baseball Coach of the Year. Instead of riding the high of capturing a trophy, the coach elected to move across the street and try to reclimb the mountain with the Lady Dragons, for a special reason.

Kara Wilcher was entering the sixth-grade for the 2013-14 school year, and Scott knew if he continued to head up the baseball team, he’d miss out on watching his daughter play as she got older, a factor that made his decision a no-brainer.

“Anytime you’re involved with your family in a decision, it’s not hard,” Wilcher said. “I knew coaching baseball, I wouldn’t be able to see her play. I thought it was a good time to move over across the road and coach softball. At the time of the switch, she was in the sixth-grade so she was able to start playing with us when she was in the seventh-grade because we had one principal over both campuses that’s how she was eligible to play. We got it going a year early, trying to get the program going. Those girls built a foundation. You know, it worked out.”

Fast forward four years later and after three straight appearances at Sulphur, the Dragons pieced it all together to win their first state title, defeating Sterlington, 3-2, in the 2A finals April 29 at Frasch Park. The victory was sweet for the team, and having Kara playing second base made it that much more special for Wilcher, who was named the 2017 All-NELA Small Schools Softball Coach of the Year.

“It’s a good thing. The one thing to me and her that we’ve done very well is we don’t take it home with us. If she has some questions when we get home we’ll talk about it, but I never bring it up about the game or how she played,” the coach said. “Nine times out of 10, she’ll come to me and ask me some questions about what she did and different things.

“It’s been a great experience, especially winning state this year with her on the team starting for us at second base. It’s unexplainable in words what it means to be able to do that with your daughter.”

Mangham athletic director Tommy Tharp said while he hated losing Wilcher as head baseball coach, it was the perfect fit to allow him to take over the softball program.

“Scott came to be about wanting to go to softball with his daughter coming up. I had the opportunity to coach my son and anytime you can coach your child it’s special,” Tharp said. “The move obviously worked out quite well for us. Either way we were going to have to fire a coach but it just made a whole lot more sense to put Scott in that role.”

Despite winning a state championship in baseball, Wilcher didn’t know what to expect out of the girls once he was their coach. While he didn’t have a timeline in mind for winning state, what he found out early on was how hard the team worked.

“I knew they had some talent over here. We kinda pushed them to the limits that first year we came in,” Wilcher said. “I had an advantage, I kept an assistant coach Susan Mullins, she’s my right hand. She handles all of our pitching and does a great job. Without her, this success wouldn’t be happening.

“Everybody wants to win a state championship, I think us coming off of winning it in baseball and coming over here, they believed in what we were doing and they bought in. I think that allowed us to have great success early.”

Wilcher also credited assistants April Hardie and Jonathon Hoggatt for the team’s run and helping install the type of work ethic he knew it would take for the Lady Dragons to achieve the ultimate prize.

“Showing them you have to work for something if you really want it. The expertise of coaching baseball for so long and coming over here and showing them things you have to do to be successful.”